There are a number of options available. A proposal can be submitted by researchers from the editorial board of the journal. It is also possible for a person holding the chair of a learned society to submit the proposal in their function as an employee of an aca demic institution.

All project findings must be disseminated to the relevant community and made availa ble for reuse free of charge, also to third parties. Disclosure of any source code pro duced is mandatory; in general, project results must be made available in open source in a suitable location with clear licensing. This includes comprehensive documentation according to common standards.

This funding programme is generally based on a broad definition of “publication” (e.g. in the sense of enhanced publication). Relevant for submitting a proposal is whether the core area of the project is on publishing the findings of research. In this case, infrastructure projects can also be funded in which e.g. book chapters or journal articles are linked with open data and open methods. A separate programme exists in the LIS funding portfolio for establishing and developing infrastructures for research data (see also "Information Infrastructures for Research Data"(interner Link)).

Funding in the area of Scientific Library Services and Information Systems aims to benefit the academic research community in Germany as a whole. As a general rule, the establishment of an institutional repository must be funded by the institution that operates it. Developments at individual institutions can only be funded by the DFG if they are designed as a pilot project intended for nationwide reuse by other research institutions at a later stage.

Editorial tasks for publication platforms or journals can be funded in the form of start-up funding. Reviewers will carefully examine how long-term funding for a journal will be ensured. Since the continued existence of the journal depends on employing editors, it must specifically be stated in the proposal how the funding for recurring editorial tasks will be ensured in the long term.

The further development of existing open access journals may also be funded as part of the programme. In this case, it is essential that the journal reaches a new level in terms of quality with the funding. This includes e.g. optimizing the publication infrastruc ture which the journal is based on or optimizing the organisational form.

Projects in all three focus areas can be carried out either independently of a publisher or in collaboration with publishers or other commercial entities. These entities are not eligible to submit a proposal. Collaboration can take place in the form of awarding a contract to a publisher as a service provider. Funds for services ,e.g. contracts awarded to third parties, carried out as part of a DFG-funded project can be requested under “Other funds” (see also DFG form 52.01(Download), section 2.5) where necessary. Two alternative offers must generally be included with the pro posal. If the communication or publication platform developed within the scope of the project is to be released or produced in collaboration with a publisher or service pro vider, please include the relevant sections of the agreement with this partner.

Yes. Establishing and (further) developing periodicals such as serials, yearbooks etc. or transforming them to open access is eligible for funding. The number of releases is irrelevant for the funding decision; it is important that the publication is released on a regular basis.

The amount of the contribution is generally not fixed. However, reviewers will consider whether the contribution made appears reasonable in relation to the funds requested. For example, assuming a portion of the salary of staff employed by the project may be listed as a contribution. General tasks of the applicant institutions are not considered financial contributions.

You can apply for funding for staff, direct project costs and funding for workshops. Pro jects may only apply for acquisition funding for the purpose of purchasing archive con tent (content backfiles). There is no upper limit defined in the programme for the amount of funding which can be applied for. The funding requested must be justified convinc ingly in the proposal.

Funding is generally awarded on a project basis, meaning that it is the responsibility of the applicants to specify in the proposal both the long-term prospects of the planned project as well as how the project results can be reused. In individual cases, these prospects can also be developed as part of the work programme of a proposal. Sus tainability will also be considered during the review process.

Ensuring the sustainability of journals must always be interpreted in two ways, namely as (a) securing the technical infrastructure, including the long-term digital availability of the contents, as well as (b) securing the content-related or editorial tasks which are necessary to ensure that new content is continuously acquired.